At one point or another you’ve probably gotten completely off track in the vortex of distraction that is the internet. Perhaps, despite this, it’s been enhancing our productivity as well. In a paper published by the University of Tehran technology reportedly increases our sense of worth and productivity by increasing efficacy and intelligence.
While facilitating a meeting for a CEO and his direct reports, someone recently joked that to improve productivity, we should just cut off access to the Internet. That’s one of those perfect situations where a dozen executives all laugh in recognition of the downside of being so connected and felt that this idea might have some merit. “How about just ‘no e-mail Fridays’? another chimed in?” This led to a substantial discussion about tradeoffs, setting expectations, and taking a “no excuses” responsibility for outcomes approach that each exec started to envision in his or her functional area.
Ah, these are the teachable moments that I thrill in — perhaps Seth’s article will stimulate a conversation among the leaders at your workplace.